1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a “bag-in-a-drum” container useful for storage and dispensing of fluids, which is adapted to minimize volumetric space requirements in storage, transport and use of the container. The container design in a specific embodiment includes a removable lid and liner to allow for the cost-effective return and reuse of the outer housing.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the field of semiconductor manufacturing, and in many other industrial process applications, fluid containers are employed as a source of process fluids. Such fluid containers may be fabricated and filled at remote locations from the end use facility, and are transported to the point of use by truck, rail or air transport.
At the end use facility, the containers may be stockpiled or maintained in inventory pending their introduction to the process system in which the fluid is to be utilized. The fluid-using process system may comprise fluid flow circuitry to which the container is coupled for selective dispensing of the fluid from the container to the process equipment of the system.
In semiconductor manufacturing and in numerous other fluid applications, high purity of fluid reagents is essential. In such applications, any significant fluid contamination may render the products manufactured by the fluid-consuming process deficient or even useless for their intended purpose. The containers used to supply fluids to the process systems manufacturing such products therefore must be of a character that avoids contamination issues in the process. Specifically, the container must be rigorously clean in condition. The container also must avoid “particle shedding,” outgassing, and any other forms of contaminant contribution to the fluid being stored in the container from the container's fluid-contacting components. The container further must maintain the fluid prior to its use in a pure state, without degradation or decomposition of the contained fluid.
In many of the aforementioned fluid-consuming manufacturing operations, the supply, transport, storage and disposition of the fluid containers entails substantial operating costs, as well as related capital expense in the provision of tank farms, fluid vessel storage vaults, and the like. There is a corresponding need in the art to provide fluid containers that minimize these capital and operating expenses.
Except in the case of chemical-dedicated, stainless steel vessels for commodity chemicals such as tetraethylorthosilicate, high purity containers typically are not refillable or reusable due to the costs associated with the return shipment of empty containers, the costs of cleaning the used containers to a level that meets purity requirements, and operational difficulties associated with the need to chemically-dedicate or customer-dedicate refillable containers. It would therefore be a signficant advance in the art, in applications in which high purity fluids are consumed, to provide fluid containers that are reusable in a cost-effective and convenient manner, and to provide an integrated supply system for repetitive use of such containers.